Federal Judge Returns Yellowstone Grizzlies to Endangered Species List

Earlier today, a federal judge in Montana restored federal Endangered Species Act protection to grizzly bears in the Northern Rocky Mountains, blocking the first U.S. hunts planned for the animals outside of Alaska since 1991.

U.S. District Court Judge Dana Christensen had delayed the hunts twice already, and his latest order blocking them was due to expire later this week. Had the court's previous order expired, Idaho and Wyoming were poised to allow up to 23 bears to be killed by hunters.

Wildlife groups and Native American tribes had sued when the Department of the Interior revoked federal protections for more than 700 grizzly bears living in and around Yellowstone National Park last year. Wildlife advocates argued that the animals face continued threats from climate change and loss of habitat. Government biologists claimed that Yellowstone's grizzlies have adapted to changes in their diet, are among the best-managed bears in the world, and are thriving.

Shortly after passage of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, the grizzlies in Yellowstone were listed as a threatened species in 1975, when the population numbered just 136 animals after most bears were killed off early last century.

After more than 30 years of protection, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service initially declared that the Yellowstone population had successfully recovered in 2007, but a federal judge ordered the protections to remain in place while wildlife officials studied whether the decline of whitebark pine seeds (a major food source) could threaten the bears' survival. The agency concluded last year that it had addressed that and all other threats to the grizzlies and removed them from the list, thus removing federal protections for the bears and their habitat.

That decision allowed management of the bears to revert back to the states, which agreed on a plan that set hunting quotas designed to ensure that the population would stay above 600 animals.

Judge Christensen ruled today that the fedeal agency had not adequately considered threats to the species' long-term recovery. He specifically opined that the case was "not about the ethics of hunting," but instead about whether threats to the long-term survival of the species had been evaluated.

The Fish & Wildlife Service had been planning to lift federal protections for another group of approximately 1,000 bears living in Montana's Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness, but was waiting to see how Christensen ruled in the Yellowstone case.

Criminal Prosecution Awaiting Killer of Pregnant Dolphin in Mississippi

Someone shot and killed a pregnant bottlenose dolphin in Mississippi -- and there's a big reward for anyone who helps find her killer.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the pregnant dolphin was found dead on a beach in Waveland, Mississippi, in April of this year. A necropsy revealed that the mother dolphin died of a gunshot wound from a small caliber bullet. Her unborn calf then died as a result of the mother's death.

Dolphins are protected under the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. The Act prohibits harassing, harming, killing, and feeding wild dolphins. Violations are punishable by up to $100,000 in fines and one year in prison per violation. It was not clear whether the killing of a pregnant dolphin and her unborn calf would constitute one violation or two.

According to NOAA, several wildlife organizations are offering a combined reward of $11,500 for information leading to the identification and/or prosecution of those responsible. Anyone with information is asked to call either the NOAA Enforcement Hotline at (800) 853-1964 or NOAA's Slidell (Louisiana) Enforcement Field Office at (985) 643-6232. Tips can be left anonymously, but contact information must be provided in order to claim the reward.

NOAA reports that violence against dolphins in the Northern Gulf of Mexico region has been on the rise in recent years. Since 2002, at least 24 dolphins have been found stranded showing evidence of being shot with guns or arrows or being impaled with other objects. Sixty-eight percent of those strandings have occurred since 2010.

NOAA is also asking for the public's help in preventing future harm to dolphins by not feeding or attempting to feed them from boats or the shore. Dolphins who are fed by people learn to associate humans with food and put themselves in dangerous situations when they approach people, boats, and fishing gear looking for food. They can learn to approach fishing gear and teach this behavior to their young. Such behavior has, in some cases, resulted in violence toward dolphins by fishermen frustrated by the loss of their catch.